The superstar couple have garnered five nods apiece at the annual awards ceremony celebrating the best in black entertainment, while rapper Drake is also up for five gongs.

Beyonce is nominated for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, Video of the Year for "Partition," and also shares two nods with husband Jay - Best Collaboration and Video of the Year for their hit single, "Drunk in Love."

Jay is also up for Best Male Hip Hop Artist and has a Best Collaboration nod with Justin Timberlake for their track together, "Holy Grail."

"This year's nominees represent the best of the culture. It's great to see our talented new artist's right alongside our more beloved ones with long careers. We appreciate our BET Awards nomination committee, over 300 strong, for their efforts and congratulate all the nominees," said BET's president of music programming and specials Stephen Hill.

Advertisement

Jay Z leads the way in the 2014 Grammy Awards shortlist with nine nominations.

The star has picked up several nods ahead of the ceremony next year including two in both the Best Music Video and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration categories. He was also nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album and Best Recording Package.

Nominations were revealing during a special live concert last night and Jay Z's collaborator Justin Timberlake is also in the running to dominate the ceremony in January. As well as being nominated alongside his friend in four categories, the "Mirrors" hitmaker is on the shortlist for Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album and Best R&B Song.

The 56th Annual Grammy Awards will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on January 26, and the duo face stiff competition across all categories.

The 32-year-old star will take to the stage on November 24 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles where he will perform for the first time as a solo artist - after last performing at the event with his band 'N Sync in 2000.

Other music legends who will entertain crowds on the night include Miley Cyrus, Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar and One Direction.

The ceremony will be hosted by 32-year-old Pitbull who is also set to perform his new single "Timber" with 26-year-old Ke$ha.

The "Applause" singer will join Miley Cyrus in the line-up of stars who will take to the stage at the ceremony held at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on November 24. The announcement follows reports that One Direction are set to make their on-stage debut at the annual awards, and it's highly likely the boys - Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan - will perform their new single "Story of My Life," taken from their third album Midnight Memories, which is due for release a day later.

"Thrift Shop" hitmakers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are also confirmed to perform at the AMAs after previously leading the nominations with six nods, including consideration for Artist of the Year, Single of the Year and New Artist of the Year.

Following closely behind is Justin Timberlake, who has been named in five categories, as has "I Knew You Were Trouble" singer Taylor Swift. Other highly anticipated performances on the night will include Kendrick Lamar, who made waves this year with breakthrough album Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, and country star Luke Bryan.

Timbaland fell out with Jay-Z and almost didn't appear on Magna Carta Holy Grail.

The producer and rapper teamed up for the track "BBC" on Jay-Z's latest album, but it nearly never happened, as they fell out after working on Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3, released in 2009, together.

In an interview on REVOLT TV Timbaland said, "Jay and I fell out. I missed his 40th [birthday.] It was over petty stuff. It was more personal stuff and disagreements. It was not industry-related. It was personal, and I was wrong."

The stars, who have worked closely together for over ten years, reunited while Timbaland was working on Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience and resolved their issues when they realized they were "better together."

The "Pusher Love Girl" star released his first album for almost seven years today, but The Roots' drummer Questlove claims the ten track album is the first part of a set and he will release more material before the end of 2013.

"Spoiler alert. 20/20 Vol 2 comes out in nov. (10 songs now . . . 10 songs later= 20 vision). He played me songs out of order and off both records so i don't know what made the final cut (sic)," he wrote on music forum Okayplayer.com.

Justin has yet to confirm whether the musician's claims are true. The singer took time off between his last album FutureSex/Lovesounds in 2006 and The 20/20 Experience to work on his acting career, and says the experience helped him develop the characters in his songs too.

The 32-year-old star is a fan of teen heart-throbs One Direction, and admitted his past in boyband *NSYNC mean he can relate to what they're going through.

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror newspaper, he said, "They look like they are having the best time. I can relate to where they are in life. I haven't really met them but they seem like great guys and I wish them only good things. I live my life surrounding myself with good people and people I can trust so I would say that's important. And they should never take anything too seriously."

The "Suit & Tie" hitmaker also admitted he spends so much time in Britain, he should look into buying a house ahead of a busy summer. "I should really buy a house here. I'm having the best time in London and whenever I do a tour I seem to spend the majority of my time here. I love the UK fans. I'm looking at my diary and seem to be spending a lot of time here this summer ... more than ever, I think," he added.

The "Suit & Tie" collaborators have strengthened speculation they are planning a joint headline show, thanks to a cryptic posting on the "99 Problems" hitmaker's website. The "Empire State of Mind" rapper posted a photo of a stadium alongside the hashtag "Legends of the Summer," prompting reports that will be the name of the tour.

Jay-Z - whose real name is Shawn Carter - then posted 12 photographs of stadiums in the US and Canada, including The Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York, Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California and Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada, suggesting they will be the venues for the shows.

The news comes after it was confirmed the pair will take on headline slots at the UK's Wireless Festival, with Justin headlining on July 12 and his pal the following night. Speaking of their joint plans together, Justin said recently, "Absolutely, yeah we're definitely going on tour. We're still putting it together, but it's going to be a lot of fun. I don't know how much I should say [about special guests]."

Justin Timberlake likes to "create another world" with his songs. The "Suit and Tie" singer immerses himself in his tracks while in the studio and aims to create different characters to tell the songs from their viewpoints.

"Music is for dreamers. You should be able to create another world that you can live in. I'm not gonna speak for Bob Dylan - he's one of my idols - but from my perspective as a fan, it seems to me that he started creating music that made him feel like another person and that's what it should do. [The studio] really is one place that you can still go to that you can be completely free. You can lock yourself in a room and make a whole other world."

The star added he feels his skills at creating characters for his songs have got better during his six year hiatus, when he has concentrated on his acting career:

The "Suit & Tie" singer - who returned to music after a six year hiatus while he tried his hand at acting - feels his experience on film sets has taught him how to create a more vivid picture with the songs on his new album.

"You spend so much time developing a character when you do a film. So much of your work is done before you get set to shoot because you've been working on the character: the way he walks, the way he talks, what might upset him, what might make him happy. Now I can really paint a picture for people 'cause being involved in the film process, you get to see the writing change, you get to see the direction change, you get to see all those things change. You go, 'You can really do this with music, too.' You can play a character but you can also write the world that you want your character to live in and then what does that world sound like? Are there more strings in that world? Are there more horns in that world? Is there more percussion in that world?" he told Rolling Stone.